China's trade surplus widens in June as imports drop

As the US-China trade war escalates, the latest trade numbers appear to back Washington's biggest gripe with Beijing.

Analysts also pointed out that Chinese export growth slowed to 11.3% year on year in June, from 12.2% in May, illustrating that exporters, faced with the threat of further trade barriers, were becoming more circumspect in sending goods overseas.

Total trade between the world's top two economies rose 13.1 per cent for the first half of the year, official data showed Friday, despite the brewing tensions.

The United States and China could reopen talks on trade but only if Beijing is willing to make significant changes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday. That leaves about $80 billion for penalty tariffs after Beijing's previous increases either imposed or threatened on a total of $50 billion of US goods are counted.

The dispute has jolted global financial markets, raising worries a full-scale trade war could derail the world economy.

Over the first six months of the year the surplus climbed to $133.8 billion as total two-way trade continued to expand despite the face-off.

The politically-sensitive data comes as sides have imposed 25% tariffs on 34-billion-dollars of the others' imports.

But comments from China's commerce ministry indicated that June's figures are a blip, a result of Chinese companies pushing to get products out the door before the tariffs went into effect, according to Reuters.

The spiralling battle with Beijing shows no signs of cooling down, and observers warn the impact will begin to hurt soon as China's economy struggles with slowing growth just as leaders try to battle a worryingly large debt mountain.